Why do we use Digital X-Rays at Drewyer Dentistry?........ For our Patients! We strive to provide the highest level of care for our patients and using digital X-ray technology is one the many cutting edge features of our dental practice. Did you know that digital x-rays reduce radiation exposure up to 90%. This ensures the safest dental visit for you and your family. Digital X-rays are not only safer for you but also safer for our environment. By going digital we eliminate the need for harsh

chemicals and other harmful materials used with traditional film radiography. Another advantage of our digital X-ray system is our ability to provide instant feedback for our patients. Instead of waiting for film X-rays to be developed, we can display digital X-rays in seconds for our patients on a flat screen hanging above each of our patient chairs. We can then magnify and sharpen images right on the computer making it easier to provide patients a faster and more accurate diagnosis.

Sensitive teeth are most often caused by an irritation of the nerve inside your tooth. Cold, hot or even sweets can irritate the nerve through tiny microscopic holes in our enamel called microtubules. Here are some tips to help!

Use a soft bristle tooth brush and brush in a circular motion. Hard brushing with hard bristles in an up and down or back and forth motion can start to wear away at your enamel and gums, taking away our tooth’s natural protective layer.

Proper Oral hygiene like brushing twice a day and cleaning between your teeth keep your teeth plaque free. Think of plaque as the acid producing bacteria's home. The longer plaque stays on your tooth the more erosion and potential for sensitivity.

Use a Sensitivity tooth paste like Sensodyne. These tooth pastes contain potassium nitrate or strontium chloride that help close off microtubules. Rubbing these toothpastes on our teeth before bed or avoiding rinsing after brushing can help increase their effectiveness.

Be careful! Tooth sensitivity can also result from more serious dental diseases like enamel erosion, abfraction, dental decay or broken teeth. Most of these can be treated by your dentist but the longer you wait the more in depth the procedure may be.

Brushing before going to sleep every night can help prevent cavities. To start let's talk about how cavities form. Bacteria that live in all our mouths and on our teeth eat the same sugars we eat, including sweets and other carbohydrates like breads and pastas. After consuming these sugars, the bacteria, called Streptococcus Mutans, produce an acidic byproduct that erodes the enamel in our teeth causing a cavity. During the day and especially while eating a meal, our bodies produce saliva to aid in digestion. This saliva is also our bodies top defense against cavity causing bacteria. Saliva contains proteins and minerals which help combat the acid byproduct that causes cavities and aids in washing away food particles that get stuck on our teeth. Unfortunately, at night our body stops producing saliva at the same rate as during the day and puts our teeth at risk for decay. That means it is extra important to get rid of any food remnants in our mouths before bedtime, a time when our mouth isn't protected by our saliva and can easily become an acidic environment, an environment cavities love. So make sure you brush before bed!

Getting “comfortably numb” – a goal for you, a goal for me. Getting to comfortably numb, not one of your favorite things. The idea of being needle phobic, well, hey, I don’t like ‘em either. The thing is, with the gauge (thinness) and sharpness (beveled and single use) of our needles, it may come as news that our needle phobia is decidedly more due to the sting of the anesthetic itself rather than the prick of the needle. Add to that the occasions when an injection does not result in “comfortably numb”, thereby requiring an additional injection, and we have one of those “adding insult to injury” type of experiences. You have always been wonderfully complementary and grateful for my painless injection techniques and until recently, we did not have a method towards addressing comfortably getting to numb. Those days are now behind us! The utilization of Buffered Anesthetic, in combination with my learned, practiced, gentle administration of the drug, brings a faster, more dependable onset of the “comfortably numb” effects. Alkalinization or Buffering, allows a faster onset of the local anesthetic effect while reducing the pain of the injection – quicker, more efficient, more predictable, more comfortable – GAME CHANGER! So very grateful for our partners in Research and Development who bring us this wonderful adjunct to our care.

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